✦✦✦✧ Eight years ago, techdeath darlings Allegaeon released Elements of the Infinite, developing for themselves a reputation for virtuosic unseriousness. They’ve been trying to distance themselves from the goofiness assumption ever since, in the process sounding like they’re still trying to figure out what their sound is. I’m happy to say that Damnum is a mighty step in the right direction, delivering dazzling, surprising, and energetic progressive metal that repeatedly manages to sound both fresh and familiar.

✦✦✧✧ This is a very mixed bag for me. On the one hand, Allegaeon’s reputation for being an innovative and supertechnical prog death metal act continues with this album. On the other hand, it’s dogged by a persistent sense of detachment. I chalk it up to an underrepresentation of dynamics or variety, which is a weird thing to say in the middle of a super shreddy arpeggiostorm, but there it is.

★★★★ This energetically technical metal album has it all. Euro-style synth intros, faultless musicianship, a lower-than-thou tuning, tasty solos, not to mention a whirlwind tour of virtually every metal subgenre of relevance today. It’s hard to imagine someone being underwhelmed. Yet, they manage to consistently sound fresh and novel and interesting, even as they sprinkle their music with nods to Gojira, The Faceless, Attack!